Espai Sucre

[noambenami]

At the end of a two week gastronomic cycling trip, which included two one star restaurants and three two star restaurants (Jardin des Sens, Auberge du Vieux Puits, and the extraordinary Chanteclair), as well as countless little places of wildly varying quality, my chef friend, his girlfriend, and myself, found ourselves at a small restaurant in Barcelona called Espace Sucre. While it does offer some savory items, the restaurant's concept is built around a dinner comprised of sweet dishes.

While I initially leaned towards the more expensive mixed savory/sweet menu, my friend wisely (as it turned out) steered us towards the inexpensive 35 euro dessert-only menu.

Our meal started with a pair of wonderful amuses, which the spanish called aperitifs: A thin cracker topped with a soy mousse, corn kernels, and three small shards of pepper/sugar tuile. The flavor was extraordinary, like amazingly refined popcorn. The other was a shot glass of cold, well made pea soup topped with a hemisphere of yogurt foam on top of which was a small shoot of what looked like microcress, and a small dollop of sardine caviar. Again, wonderful, with the acid from the yogurt and salt from the caviar matching the mellow, delicate soup.

Now, I will not go into the details of each of the five desserts that followed except to say that with one exception, they were all extraordinary. From a carrot mousse teamed with gingered tapioca and a half dozen other components to a spicy milk gelee teamed with various citrus forms and arugula, all these dishes were playing at a level few restaurants ever reach.

One dish stunned both myself and my friend: A manchego cheesecake, topped with a semicrunchy thyme crust, a thick mousse delicately flavored with thyme, topped with a pineapple sorbet, all alongside a brunoise of fresh pineapple dusted with thyme. This dish was one of the most fabulously balanced dishes I have ever had. Seconds were summarily and very atypically ordered.

And no, at no point did the meal become overly sweet or tiring. We ordered a couple of bottles of the house cava to go with the meal, which worked out well and was inexpensive. Three people, dining and drinking like royalty paid 150 euros in total. This was about what one of us typically pays for less exciting fare at most of the restaurants we'd been to before.

So, if you find yourself in Barcelona, run, do not walk to this extraordinary restaurant. But make a reservation first - the place filled up quickly.

[noambenami]

Small correction, the name of the place is "Espai Sucre"

Some quick info:

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/barcelona/D51851.html

[Silly Disciple]

Espai Sucre also has a pastry school, which offers demos from prominent chefs such as Albert Adria, Oriol Balaguer, etc, as well as long courses (I believe they have a eleven months one, and a few other courses).

I attended one recently, by Albert Adria, which was very interesting.

more info on their website.

SD

Edited June 7, 2005 by Silly Disciple (log)

[robert brown]

Buried somewhere deep in the Spain & Portugal forum is a post I wrote stating that the dinner I had at Espai Sucre two years ago was one of the worst of my life. If there's such a concept as atonal food, this is it. Now perhaps there are those who like "atonal food" just as there are music lovers who adore Arnold Schonberg, for example. The boss's wife or girlfriend, picking up on my mood, wouldn't give me a menu and she got really pissed off when I asked my wife's daughter's boyfriend to take a picture of the menu they had posted outside.

[tan319]

With all due respect,

you STILL haven't written A THING about THE MEAL!!!

I mean, if it was a horrible awful experience based on service in particular, that's one thing.

But you've never elaborated on the meal, what you had, etc., ever, and I, myself, bugged you good naturedly about it at least 2 to 4 times?

So, unless you did elaborate and the subscription sender thing never alerted me( in that case, forgive my rant) it's NEVER too late to tell us what you ATE?

Tell us about the food, mate!

[noambenami]

You know, there was one item in the restaurant that I would certainly agree was horribly atonal. A meal consisting of like-minded items would be pretty horrible. Perhaps the restaurant has since responded to criticism. As it was, my friend, who has worked at three michelin star restaurants and who has cooked at the Ritz-Carlton for years, was blown away, as was I, and we had just finished two weeks of eating our way through France and Spain...Perhaps, Robert, you should go back if you have a chance. After all, its a relatively cheap night out.

[tan319]

Just out of curiousity, what was the horribly atonal dish?

Also wondering, is there a large ala carte dessert selection? If any?

Finally, Silly Disciple (or any others), does anyone have any pictures of Espai Sucre?

The Room or facilities as well as the food?

Will you be publishing any on your blog,SD?

Loved your report, noambenami.

Thank you

[noambenami]

The plates at Espai were way too complex for me to remember or even identify all elements, but in general terms, that last plate was a bowl in whose center was a chocolate ice cream quenelle atop a light chocolate cake. It was all surrounded by what I think was billed as smoked yogurt...and it was this smoked yogurt that killed the plate for me.

All menus at Espai are prix fix, and there are three different ones. However, the kitchen was more than accomodating to some special requests that we made that night.

[Silly Disciple]

Finally, Silly Disciple (or any others), does anyone have any pictures of Espai Sucre?

←

Sorry, I did not take pictures during the demo.

SD